HIGH SCHOOL BOYS BASKETBALL: Wallace reaches 1,000 in Trenton's rout of Ravens

Saturday, January 26, 2013

By KYLE FRANKOkjfranko@gmail.com

TRENTON — It was just two years ago that Trenton High boys basketball coach Greg Grant remembers Rasheed Wallace opting to sit in the stands instead of dressing for a varsity game.

“We did not tell him not to dress,” said Grant, recalling that Wallace was on the wrong end of a tongue-lashing.

“He was a weak, soft kid then.”

So much has changed for Wallace since that day.

He bought into Grant’s tough-love system, turning himself into one of the premier scorers in Mercer County.

On Saturday afternoon, Wallace became the first Trenton player since Randy Corker in 1980 to score 1,000 career points.

He did it in style too, getting the 15 points he needed in the first quarter. The milestone shot was a 3-pointer from the right corner.

“I was pretty hot in the first quarter,” said Wallace, a senior, who finished with 34 points, as the Tornadoes improved to 12-3 following a 73-43 victory over Robbinsville.

“I was thinking about it a little bit,” said Wallace, who posed for a picture with family after hitting 1,000. “I wanted to get it. I felt like I worked hard for it. It’s a blessing to get it, though.”

What impressed Grant was how quickly Wallace accomplished it.

Or as he put it, “the old way.”

Wallace, as is tradition at Trenton, only started playing varsity his junior season — it’s why 1,000-point scorers have been so few and far between for a school with a rich basketball history.

To Grant, that meant the accomplishment wasn’t watered down over a four-year period. It also speaks to Wallace’s commitment.

“We’re not easy coaches to play for,” Grant said. “We demand a lot. We demand that you work hard every day, improve your game and try to get better. Most players in this era don’t accept that. They have to go somewhere else, where it’s easy, where coaches don’t yell.”

Wallace could’ve gone somewhere else. He’s a talented scorer with a knack for finding his way to the rim.

He chose to stick it out at Trenton.

“It feels good,” Wallace said. ”Normal people can’t get it really. I felt like I put hard work into it.”

Where the 6-foot-1 guard projects at the next level is still uncertain. He hasn’t committed to any school and he’s going to have to play point guard in college — a position he doesn’t play for the Tornadoes.

“He can definitely play on any level,” said Grant, who himself went from TCNJ to the NBA. “It’s going to be whether he wants to put the time in to do so.”

For now, Wallace is happy to finish off an outstanding career at Trenton — one in which he’ll become the school’s all-time leading scorer before his senior season ends.

Remember that kid that ran to the bleachers — he’s long gone.

“It’s not easy to score 1,000 points in two seasons, but he put some time and work in,” Grant said. “He’s still quiet. He’s still shy. But he has a little more killer in him.”